


Six Monsters and a Magician

by PumpkinPantaloons



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Freeform, Gen, M/M, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 16:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2475569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PumpkinPantaloons/pseuds/PumpkinPantaloons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are six monsters terrorizing an empire, and one magician promises to turn them back into miracles. </p>
<p>A fairytale AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six Monsters and a Magician

**Author's Note:**

> I usually don’t write in this kind of style, or AUs, so please forgive me.

Once there was an empire that stretched as far as was known by most, because most dared not venture beyond the empire’s borders; for this is where the monsters dwelled. Six fearsome men and one woman, some savage, some tamer, but all a blight upon the land. The only things keeping that blight from spreading to the empire were the nine wizards of Seirin, led by their fearsome, yet kind queen, and the bravery of the city states; the lancers of Kaijou, the archers of Shuutoku, the swordsmen of Touou, the shield bearers of Yosen, and the elite guard of Rakuzan. Even with such awe-inspiring might, holding back the monsters was a fierce challenge, one that was steadily draining the strength and resources of the empire.

And then a magician with eyes the color of the cloudless sky appeared to the nine wizards of Seirin. An unknown magician. A magician in a time of wizards, for he claimed he had no magic, even as he had breached every one of the empire’s magical and martial defenses to reach them.

“I have a proposal.” The magician had informed them in a tone as smooth and steady as a calm lake. He would bring the monsters down from the mountains and distant castle, from the grasslands and the towering trees, and from the rushing river and the deepest, darkest cave. He would bring them to the empire.

But it was not a threat. They would come willingly, and they would come to defend. To defend the lands they’d blighted and the empire they’d terrorized. The wizards did not believe such a thing was possible, they thought the magician was touched by madness, and so they agreed more readily than was wise to accept these monsters, if they came as miracles, to watch over the cities and the lands. When the magicless magician left the gates, alone and only armed with a few daggers, the wizards knew the light blue sky was mad and he slowly faded from their thoughts.

Until he came back with the tiger.

The tiger always had to be the first; the last of the monsters to appear, the monster that had never been a miracle, but was also barely a monster. The listless tiger, come from foreign lands, as large as an elephant, stalked the grasslands. Where he passed, tall grasses were trampled, where he fed, the wildlife was decimated, when he growled, the earth trembled and stone vibrated. And yet, even the other monsters thought him too weak to give notice to, and so even the challenge he craved was taken from him. And then the blue-haired magician appeared before him, slipping past his keen sense of smell, with what the tiger assumed must have been magic. But was not.

“I have a proposal.” The magician said in a voice that rolled like a smooth marble, even in the presence of such a monstrous beast. He promised the listless tiger a greater challenge, something to protect which would surely pit him against the other monsters; they would not be able to ignore him if he fought for Seirin. And if he fought alongside the magician, he would have a shadow to make his light even stronger.

And without words, because these words would have burned the monster’s pride, the magician told the tiger the proposal was to give him a place to belong.

And as he had proposed, the magician came back to the empire with a man of firey red hair and wild red eyes, the miracle that was never truly a monster. The miracle of Seirin. And because the queen was a woman of her word, he was accepted among them.

But they did not stay long, because there were other monsters to persuade, as the magician had proposed. The magician had promised the tiger a strong opponent, so he gave him the strongest; the dark blue panther, the ace amongst the monsters. In his heart, but not his words, the blue-eyed magician knew it was too soon, that there were not yet enough miracles in the world to defeat the fast and graceful monster. Yet he risked it, because he believed magic could happen, and a secret need to free this monster dwelled in the dark shadows of the magician’s own soul.

However, even as he wished and believed in magic, the magician knew he needed to be shrewd, so he waited until the predator was from his home, the deepest and darkest cave at the foot of the mountains, to speak with his companion, the glorious pink bird, with her sharp eyes and ability to see potential.

“I have a proposal.” The blue-eyed magician announced in a tone as smooth as a pane of glass, to the woman perched in her tall, evergreen tree that stood guard outside of the dark cave. For her he promised freedom for the dark cat, for him to smile again, a return to the glorious miracle he once had been. And as she wept, she told the magician that if he could do it, she would gladly follow. She warned until then however, she would not go easy on him, and the magician returned with just as much fierceness that he would have it no other way.

When the dark blue panther returned with the rising of the sun, the ‘I have a proposal’ was a silent look between the large cat and the magician. And then the tiger attacked. The panther gave up a moment of advantage to fling the magician upwards into the bird’s nest with an angry snarl. The magician and the bird knew what this meant. Even as a monster he would not tear apart the shadow, but because the magician was as stubborn as the certainty that the night follows the day, they would not let him join this battle. So with keen claws and clever magic, the pink bird held the magician fast, while the panther did what he did best; fight with a vicious, captivating light, all claws and snapping jaws and speed.

The tiger was not enough, could not hold against the strength of the monster, and despite the magician’s desperate cries and struggle, the tiger was left limp, a bloody mess matting his fur where chunks had not been torn away.

“This is your proposal?” The panther snarled up into the tree, shaking the forever green branches and the heart of the magician, before stalking back into the darkness of the desolate cave. The bird released him then, taking pity on the magician and placed him gently on the ground, next to his broken light. She silently left him there, kneeling in the blood, because she knew there were no words to help him. To help her.

The magician could not name the ice that froze his heart as he struggled in blood and tears to get his broken light to the empire before it was too late, too late for the both of them. This time the nine wizards saw that the magician was just a magician, frail and fallible, and not a thing of miracles.

They were both right and wrong.

Even so, they healed the broken tiger, with the magician ever at his side, sky-blue stained red and a dirty face with the lingering remnants of dried tears. And while the tiger lie sleeping, the magician stayed, holding one large hand in his small ones as both anchor and assurance, and knew one thing above all others; he needed to get stronger so his tiger would not get hurt again, because to see this repeated would break a heart that he’d thought was already broken beyond repair.

The tiger woke with a wild grin and an eagerness for even greater strength, so he trained with the clever wizards of Seirin, as they could provide him with challenges to fight against. And he grew to laugh with the wizards, as they would laugh with him, while the magician watched and waited in the dark corners and forgotten spaces.

The tiger noticed the absence of the magician, his shadow, first. Next the captain and the iron heart, then the eagle and the queen, followed closely by the others. With him in their minds, and the light he’d given them in their hearts, they finally saw the faded magician and pulled him to them. There was no wasted effort and he would perform miracles again.

And the magician, with his brighter light, did. For the second would be the lonely copycat.

The shining, golden copycat, which did, in fact, have a preference on the cat part, out of admiration for the one that had pulled him into a world of miracles and monsters, lived by and in the glittering, rushing river. The grassy banks, with their pale, multicolored flowers were where he licked his wounds after going up against the dark blue panther again and again, never winning, but always deterring the viciousness that lay deep in the panther, turning him away from assaulting the empire and regrets he could not return from. If the magician had been wiser, resisted the darker places of his heart, the copycat would have always been the second.

The magician did not need the tiger for this, and so he left him behind to train, while the blue-haired young man slipped through the wilderness unnoticed, approaching the river and the copycat there, curled up in a ray of sun.

“I have a proposal.” The magician’s voice was the soft evenness of a blanket. The proposal was a promise of friendship and purpose, a promise to banish the loneliness the copycat should never have had to endure. It was easy for the copycat to accept all of the things he missed about the time before they were monsters. And so, while the magician had left alone, he returned to the empire with a stunningly gorgeous young man, hair the color of the sun, eyes the promise of glittering gold. He loved the lancers most, and so the copycat joined Kaijou.

The green oha asa was to be the third.

For this the magician came to the nine wizards and the queen with a request. A request to find the luckiest man in all the land, for that is what it would take for the third; a luck greater than luck itself. And so the wizards searched, with magic and might, scouring the empire to find their answer was a hawk that saw all, a trickster that played luck and laughed.

“I have a proposal.” The magician told the hawk, tone a light mist on the wind. A chance to make a monster that had never smiled, smile. To trick luck itself. The magician warned the hawk, that if he were successful in this task, he would have a companion that would stand beside him for as long as he lived. The hawk, the trickster, would never admit it, and it was a thing the magician did not know, but that was the best part of the proposal, for a trickster often loses those he tricks.

With that promise, the tiger, the copycat, the magician and the hawk left the safety of the empire to seek out the deep, tall forest where luck dwelled – for if the hawk was not successful, they would incur the wrath of a monster. And when they reached the towering trees that blotted out the sun and brought a whispering silence to the world, the magician had a voice too small to be heard, and so the hawk yelled in a clear and strong singsong, “I have a proposal.” A proposal that was a challenge to pit luck against luck.

The oha asa claimed he was not interested, shook the trees and the needles of evergreens sifted down into their hair and the prickly blanket of the forest, but the wizards could not have picked a better trickster than the hawk, because the hawk talked the luck down from the trees where it dwelled, and the challenge was accepted.

The tiger and the copycat did not need to fight. The magician had not been worried, and the hawk had had no doubt, because at the first sight of the oha asa, the hawk knew this monster was not something to lose. And so they returned to the empire, their numbers one more, a young man with hair and eyes like the forest he had cared for. And the magician had not lied, so when the hawk returned to the archers of Shuutoku, the marksmen received a miracle of their own.

The magician held a fear in his heart about the fourth, but the tiger and the copycat did not. They were ready, and so the fourth would be the blue-black cat, the panther with the jagged pieces of two of their hearts.

The proposal remained unspoken when they made it to the dark, hollow cave, but again the ace accepted, and even with the odds against him, he had immeasurable talent and the keen eyes of the bird on his side, and so no one considered him at a disadvantage. But the magician knew this time that he had not miscalculated, and while it was a fierce and savage battle that left none of them unscathed, the ace felt defeat for the first time as a monster, and found he did not enjoy it as much as he thought he might.

“I have a proposal.” The magician finally said with a small smile and a voice as fleeting as tears. And so the empire gained a fourth miracle and a woman with keen eyes, and lost a fourth monster. The ace saw the strength of the swordsmen, and they greatly valued the dark blue-haired ace’s strength in return, and so Touou had their miracle.

The gluttonous giant in the mountains would have to be the fifth.

The magician knew there would be battle, but the difficulty lay in the thin line between hate and love, because the giant rarely could distinguish one from the other, and so knowing whether to push or pull in any given moment was an art neither the magician nor his miracles possessed. So the magician went to the wizards of Seirin and asked them to find a passionate man wrapped in the coldest ice. For that purpose the mirage, a shield bearer of Yosen, was chosen.

“I have a proposal.” The magician explained in a tone as firm as steel. He offered the mirage the miracle himself, for the largest of monsters was also the greatest of shields. And as he had with the hawk, the magician cautioned that once he had the monster over that line, there would be no turning back, he would have a companion for life. The mirage said he would accept the proposal, but was not concerned about these things, and since the magician could not tell if what he heard was truth or lie, he knew they had found the right one for the giant.

The magician smiled for the second time.

And so they departed. The tiger, the copycat, the oha asa and his hawk, the ace, the mirage, and the magician left the growing safety of the empire to climb up the jagged spine of the mountains to seek out the fifth monster. There was no harmony in that cold. The miracles bickered constantly, personalities clashing in a ringing loudness that gave off sparks, breaking and burning the landscape.

The magician did not know what to say, but the mirage spoke up, calmness rising above the heated destruction, “I have a proposal.” Once. Survive this arrangement once, bear it long enough to see the giant done the favor that had been done each of them. It did not take them long to decide; they thought about their new homes, their new friends, and while they did not get along with each other, they would not deny that warmth to another. The magician thanked the mirage, and in turn the mirage claimed he simply could not stand the noise.

It took many days to find where the giant lounged, surrounded by the remnants of one of the few hunts he left such a desolate land to procure, and all the while the miracles remembered the mirage’s proposal and did not bicker, although there were constant challenges between the ace and the tiger, for two lights to clash, one dulled by time and one brightening by the moment, bordered on a wildfire. But while their challenges echoed through the rough, towering stone, even the earth could feel a familiarity and friendship grow between them.

And the magician smiled for the third time.

This time the mirage would issue the challenge. “I have a proposal.” He said in a voice as bitter as winter, a promise of fire to thaw the giant’s cold heart. The giant neither accepted nor declined, a mirror of the mirage himself, and the battle began.

It took days of struggle to bring the giant to his knees, tired and panting and full of excitement and a familiarity, a remembered longing; but he would not reveal so, tried not to reveal so. And then the mirage reminded the giant that there was one more voice he must hear again, one more miracle, and for a moment the tiger and the copy cat, the oha asa and the hawk, the ace and the magician saw the fire beneath the mirage of ice, and it warmed the giant. He pulled, and the giant followed. The shield bearers of Yosen had their miracle.

The magician knew well the last request would be the hardest to get the queen and wizards of Seirin to agree to, because it was war. “I have a proposal.” The magician said in a voice as steady as the foundations of the empire. The lancers, archers, swordsmen, shield bearers, and their new miracles, and the might of the elite guard, would march on the impassive castle, the last stand of the once flourishing Teikou empire, the home of the last and most ruthless of monster, the emperor. Yes, the magician was asking the empire to expose itself while its best went against a monster that could predict the future. The gamble was the proposal.

The queen and the wizards laughed, because there was no gamble in this. They believed in the magician and his miracles, and the wizards would defend their empire in his wake, because they too had brightened with the light of the magician’s magic, only a determination and a hidden caring that they all believed in.

Taken aback by such faith, the magician told them a story, a story of a mighty kingdom championed by miracles, the fall of the rainbow prince and the death of the king. A spiral that stripped away smiles and turned red to gold. An emperor, a tyrant, was born, and miracles became monsters. Of all the miracles, all but the ace, wept at the remembrance of that loss, and their own fall. The city-states saw that regret, and the acceptance of their miracles, as Seirin had already had for their light and shadow, was complete. For the magician, the ace uttered a silent apology that the magician did not need, because his former light shedding the monster was thanks enough.

And so they went to free the sixth monster and the last, the emperor.

They fought through cunning traps and diversions, and the bloodthirsty precision of a tyrant. And yet the miracles, grand in their own right, did not let their teammates fall. And the emperor saw this, saw the magician follow the actions of the miracles, used that fluidity as if to say ‘I have a proposal’ and the emperor responded. Gold turned to red, and a miracle, not a monster, greeted them at the gates of the castle.

The captain smiled at the magician, an apology and acknowledgement, and all of the miracles smiled back a welcome home. Rakuzan had their miracle. An empire would flourish.

A magician’s heart was mended. And yet he felt he was missing something, a fire to melt the remaining cracks into perfection. The captain of Rakuzan, who saw many things, including the hidden smiles of a shadow and the lingering touches of a light, brought amused wisdom to them both.

The words were unnecessary, even as the tiger sputtered and grinned, but the magician said them anyway. “I have a proposal.”

And the magician smiled. The fourth of many times.


End file.
